Leo’s bare f lesh display showed poor judgment

IF YOU’RE lucky enough to live beside the Phoenix Park or within a 5km radius, you may be pleased to learn that you can surrender yourself completely to the sunshine today with no call for cameraphone surveillance of our great leader. For the Taoiseach has put us on notice that he has no plans to sunbathe in public this bank holiday and will instead confine stripping off to the garden of his private lodgings, the Steward’s Lodge on the Farmleigh Estate.

‘I don’t want to give my press officer a heart attack or anything,’ he said about a repeat performance of him enjoying a topless picnic with his boyfriend Matt and pals that went viral last weekend as he doubtless knew it would. Leo Varadkar may be the first Taoiseach to be caught chillaxing with such abandonment but he’s also our first leader to be, if not a digital native, then certainly a paid-up member of the selfie generation.

He’s also one of the modern political elite, spanning relatively young guns like Justin Trudeau to old stagers like Donald Trump, who exploits the internet to bypass conventional news organisations and control their message themselves.

But even if Leo wasn’t a consummate user of new media, the controversy about his behaviour at the LCD Soundsystem concert and indeed at the Kylie Minogue gig – when he was falsely accused of taking free food– must have made him wary about the ubiquity of the cameraphone and the internet’s dangerous power to misinterpret perfectly innocent behaviour.

THE Taoiseach knew that peeling off his T-shirt in the sunshine was a direct invitation to the cameraphones all around him to start recording. His doing so may be a sign of how fatigue from managing the health crisis has impaired his judgement so much that he let his guard down on a rare afternoon off.

Or it might be a sign of an exhibitionist streak that, in fairness, many public figures possess but that, for reasons of credibility, they keep firmly in check, at least in public.

No one who wants to be taken seriously needs to be cast in the same bracket as a wannabe reality TV star like Maura Higgins, Kim Kardashian, a train wreck like the late Jade Goody or anyone whose naked play for the attention of the cameras lens launched their tacky careers.

Leo has enormous status as leader of his party and his country. For all that we Irish pride ourselves in not taking things too seriously, we still hold it an honour to be elected Taoiseach; we believe that those we entrust with the role represent continuity, public service and, hopefully, integrity.

In return, we expect dignified behaviour in public, a certain decorum that doesn’t include lolling around shirtless in the grass, or being a show-off. To his credit, Leo Varadkar is always elegantly turned out and well-groomed. Compared to some of his Dáil colleagues, who look as if they’ve just climbed down from their tractor or wear their denim shirts as a badge of socialist pride, he has a toned and metrosexual appeal.

BUT he’s no David Beckham and it’s a mystery why he risked his gravitas and public approval for a photograph that freezes him in time, looking like a silly party boy minus the obligatory tattoos and can of beer.

We are used to seeing pictures of our political elite enjoying their downtime. Leo’s lockdown picnic with friends is just the latest in a series of blameless sundrenched photographs of our leaders, from Bertie

Ahern in his worn-out T-shirts in Parknasilla, or Charlie Haughey in his cap on board his yacht, or Enda Kenny, in lycra shorts and helmet, mounting his bicycle.

While his predecessors covered up for the camera, Leo let it all hang out. His promise not to do so this weekend is an admission that playing the topless Taoiseach was a mistake. And that he will postpone any future public displays until he is out of power.